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Category: Brightspace Small Plates

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Tip #281: Grade Book – Release Final Grades

Unlike other grade items and categories in the Grade Book, final grades are not available to students by default. Final grades must be released. When setting up the Grade Book, the instructor can choose to automatically release final grades so that the students can see their final grade throughout the semester. If you did not choose to enable the automatic release of final grades when setting up your Grade Book, you will have to manually release final grades in order for students to see their final grade.

Additionally, you can selectively release final grades for some students now and release the final grades for other students later. For example, you can release the final grades for graduating seniors on one date and release the final grades for everyone else on a later date.

Follow these steps to do it.

To manually release final grades:

  1. On the NavBar, click Grades.
  2. On the Enter Grades page, from the Final Calculated Grade or Final Adjusted Grade context menu, click Grade All.
  3. To release grades for all users, on the Final Grades page, from the Final Grades context menu, click Release All. To release final grades for a specific user, do one of the following:
    • Select the check box by the user name and click the Release/Unrelease link.
    • Select the check box in the Release Final Calculated Grade or Release Adjusted Final Grade column.
  4. Click Save.

OR watch this video for instructions on how to release final grades:

NOTE: There is a slight change in the video instructions. The "Enter Grades" option should be used anywhere in the video where "Grade All" is referenced.

Want more information?

Adjust Final Grades
Release Final Grades
Final Grades FAQs
Grades FAQs
Brightspace Tip #109: Grade Book

View all the Brightspace training recaps
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Continuous Delivery release notes
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You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
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Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Image credit: "final grades" by jflorent is dedicated to public domain under CC0 and is a derivative of grade by OpenClipart-Vectors on Pixabay

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Tip #280: November Continuous Delivery Updates

update

D2L (the company that owns Brightspace) uses Continuous Delivery to update our Brightspace system. The Continuous Delivery model gives us regular monthly updates allowing for incremental and easily integrated changes with no downtime required for our Brightspace system.

Our Continuous Delivery update occurs on the 4th Thursday of each month. D2L provides release notes to help users stay up-to-date with the changes.

Here are a few updates in the November 2021/20.21.11 release that were added to our system this month:

1) Brightspace Editor – Additional support for drag/drop and copy/paste images

Expanding further on the Brightspace Editor – Drag/drop and copy/paste images | Updated feature released in October 2021 / 20.21.10 and Brightspace Editor – Improvements | Updated feature released in May 2021 / 20.21.5, additional tools and editors now support the drag/drop and copy/paste functionality, including:

  • Quizzes > Feedback
  • Grades > Feedback
  • Grades > Comments
  • Discussions > Feedback

This functionality is now available in user-specific areas that may contain images with learner-sensitive information. As a result, these images are stored in the database rather than the Manage Files area of a course offering. In addition, the Course Copy function does not include these images.

2) Content – PDF inline viewer menu improvements

This feature updates the PDF Inline viewer used when showing all converted documents (e.g. Word documents) as PDFs within Brightspace Classic Content. As a result the PDF inline viewer menu has moved to the top of the PDF document, along with PDF navigation and actions and an overall refreshed button design.

The new PDF in-line viewer with the menu bar at the top of the PDF viewer when viewing an original PDF.
The new PDF in-line viewer with the menu bar at the top of the PDF viewer when viewing an original PDF.

3) Email – Increased Limits for To and CC Fields

This feature increases the number of email addresses that can be added to the To and CC fields in a single email to 200. This is a result of increased limits on the size of headers in Brightspace SMTP servers.

Previously, the limit was 50 email addresses.

4) Manage Files – Users receive warning message when uploading a file blocked due to security

This feature provides the user with a warning message if they attempt to upload a file with an extension that is either not allowed by the Assignment or is on the security restricted list. This message appears as "This file extension is not allowed." for Assignments; and as "This file extension is not allowed for security reasons. Please see our Restricted File Extensions article in the D2L Community for more detailed information." for security restricted file extensions.

The security restricted file extensions list can be found here.

The warning message displayed when attempting to upload a security-restricted file extension.
The warning message displayed when attempting to upload a security-restricted file extension.
The warning message displayed when attempting to upload an assignment with a restricted file extension.
The warning message displayed when attempting to upload an assignment with a restricted file extension.

If you are interested in getting more information about these and all the November Continuous Delivery updates, refer to the Brightspace Platform November 2021/20.21.11 Release Notes.

Additionally, refer to the Brightspace Release Notes for Continuous Delivery Releases, for details about current, past, and to preview upcoming continuous delivery updates.

Want more information?

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
View all the Brightspace training recaps
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Image credit: image by geralt from Pixabay

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Tip #279: Get Feedback from your Students

typewriter with the word feedback typewritten multiple times on piece paper

Instructors can create surveys in Brightspace and use the statistics tools to monitor current course trends, seek opinions, and assess user satisfaction.

Surveys are an excellent way to solicit feedback from learners regarding any aspect of a course. You can gather anonymous or non-anonymous opinions and information from users. Unlike Quizzes, survey questions do not have to have right or wrong answers and Likert-style rating questions are possible.

Some examples of the types of uses for surveys are: seeking feedback on the effectiveness of active learning exercises, the need for clarification of course material, and/or seeking suggestions for course improvement.

ICYMI, read my New Twist on End-of-Semester Evaluations blog post.

Follow these steps to do it.

To create a survey:

  1. On the NavBar, click Activities, then click Surveys.
  2. On the Manage Surveys page, click New Survey.
  3. Enter a Name and select additional settings for your survey (e.g. choose the option to give instant feedback and/or make results anonymous).
  4. To add questions directly to the survey, click Add/Edit Questions. Alternatively, you can add questions from the Question Library.
  5. Click Done Editing Questions to return to the survey page.
  6. Click the Restrictions tab to modify the survey's availability.
  7. Uncheck the Hide from Users checkbox.
  8. Specify a date range for the survey, if appropriate.
  9. Set the attempts allowed for the survey.
  10. Click Save and Close.

To track survey progress and results:

Based on how you have set up the survey properties, you might see a list of all users or just the overall survey results with anonymous responses.

  1. On the NavBar, click Activities, then click Surveys.
  2. On the Manage Surveys page, click the context menu next to the name of your survey and click Statistics.
  3. In the Users tab, search for users and their listed attempt types. You can restrict your search of survey results by attempt in the Attempts tab.
  4. To view a specific user's results, click on an individual attempt. To view the number of attempts per question within a survey, click View Overall Results at the bottom of the page.

Want more information?

Setup a Survey (video)
Ensure anonymous survey participation
Track Survey Progress and Results
Monitor Course Trends and Assess Satisfaction

Question Library Quick Reference Guide (pdf)
Benefits of Question Library (video)
Create a New Question (video)
Import Questions into Question Library (video)

View all the Brightspace training recaps
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Continuous Delivery release notes
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Image credit: image by geralt | Pixabay License

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Tip #278: Discussions – @mentions

The Discussions tool has a new @mentions feature. Within the Discussion tool, users can now tag other users within the same course using @mentions. Tagged users are notified by alerts in the Minibar directing them to the thread in which they were tagged. Additionally, users can edit their notification settings and opt to receive email notifications when they are tagged in discussions.

Brightspace Editor with @mentions identifying users who match the criteria
The @mentions will identify users who match the criteria

You may be wondering how @mentions could enhance your class discussions. Here are a couple of examples:

Example 1:

@Mentions can help thread together concepts from multiple people in a discussion. For example, student A may be reading through discussion posts and sees that fellow classmates (Jayne and Francis) are making similar points in their posts but they are coming from completely different starting points. Student A wants to draw Jayne and Francis into a conversation with each other. Student A could post something like, "Hey @Jayne, did you see that @Francis agrees with you on x and y, but starts with presupposition b instead of a? What do you think about his presupposition?" Both Jayne and Francis would receive notification that they have been tagged in the discussion. Likewise, you as the instructor, could use the @mentions to tag students to draw them into a conversation.

Example 2:

You have a student that wants to draw you, as the instructor, into the conversation for clarification. The student could use the @mentions to tag you. You would receive notification alerting you that you have been tagged and you could prioritize responding to that thread before reading through all the others.

Do you have other examples of how @mentions could be useful in discussions? If so, please leave a comment on this post.

Notifications in the minibar showing @mentions the user is tagged in
Tagged users receive notification in the minibar

Follow these steps to do it.

To use @mentions in a discussion:

  1. Navigate to the forum topic or thread where you want to use @mentions.
  2. Post as normal by selecting Reply to Thread or Start a New Thread.
  3. To tag a user, type @ and begin typing their first or last name.
  4. The user will appear on a list under the text. Select the user to tag them.
  5. The @mention will display the user's first and last name.
  6. Select Post when you are done.

Want more information?

Plan and Facilitate Quality Online Discussions
Tips to Improve Online Discussions
How-to Resources for Discussion Forums
Brightspace Tip #201: Notifications

View all the Brightspace training recaps
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Continuous Delivery release notes
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Tip #277: Turnitin – Quick Submit

Turnitin is a plagiarism detection tool that is integrated into our Brightspace system. Turnitin checks student work for potential plagiarism and allows instructors to provide electronic feedback to students through markup, proofing, and rubrics tools.

Instructors typically create an Assignment submission folder with Turnitin enabled. When students submit their assignments they are checked for potential plagiarism. However, there may be situations where an instructor needs to submit a paper to be checked by Turnitin.

Turnitin - Quick Submit

The Quick Submit feature allows instructors to submit papers and receive Similarity Reports without creating an Assignment in their course. This is ideal for instructors who would like to use Turnitin to spot check submissions and have these papers in electronic format. Quick Submit SHOULD NOT be used if the instructor desires to have students submit their own papers or plans on using PeerMark (peer review assignment tool) or GradeMark (make comments on and assess student papers). Instructors should create an Assignment and enable Turnitin for the assignment instead.

Follow these steps to do it.

To use Quick Submit to submit a paper:

  1. Log in to your Turnitin account natively through www.turnitin.com.
  2. Activate Quick Submit by clicking on User Info from the top of the instructor homepage.
  3. On the preferences page, select yes from the activate Quick Submit drop-down menu. The Quick Submit tab will appear on the instructor homepage, making the Quick Submit inbox available for use.
  4. To start the upload process, click on the Submit button in the Quick Submit inbox and follow the instructions.

Want more information?

Turnitin Quick Submit (pdf)
Assignments and Turnitin
Create an Assignment and Enable Turnitin
TurnItIn - Assess an Assignment using TurnItIn - Instructor (video)
Interpreting the Similarity Report

Brightspace Tip #255: Simplify Assignment Collection
Brightspace Tip #276: Turnitin Feedback Studio
Brightspace Tip #122: Getting the Best out of Turnitin Feedback Studio

About PeerMark Assignments

View all the Brightspace training recaps
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Continuous Delivery release notes
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Tip #276: Turnitin Feedback Studio

Turnitin document viewer

Turnitin Feedback Studio is a program that checks student work for potential plagiarism and allows instructors to provide electronic feedback to students through markup, proofing, and rubrics tools.

Watch this short Turnitin Feedback Studio Walkthrough video from Turnitin on Vimeo.

Did you know that Turnitin is integrated into Brightspace? Instructors can choose to enable Turnitin when setting up Assignments in Brightspace.

Want more information?

Simplify assignment collection
Assignments and Turnitin
Turnitin Feedback Studio Demo
Enable Turnitin Feedback Studio® for assignments
Turnitin Feedback Studio - Instructor
Turnitin Feedback Studio - Student

View all the Brightspace training recaps
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Continuous Delivery release notes
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Tip #275: October Continuous Delivery Updates

update

D2L (the company that owns Brightspace) uses Continuous Delivery to update our Brightspace system. The Continuous Delivery model gives us regular monthly updates allowing for incremental and easily integrated changes with no downtime required for our Brightspace system.

Our Continuous Delivery update occurs on the 4th Thursday of each month. D2L provides release notes to help users stay up-to-date with the changes.

Here are a few updates in the October 2021/20.21.10 release that were added to our system this month:

1) Brightspace Editor – Drag/drop and copy/paste images

This feature complements the Brightspace Editor functionality as released in the Brightspace Editor – Improvements | Updated feature released in May 2021 / 20.21.5.

The drag/drop and copy/paste functionality of images is now available in the following areas that contain no user-specific data.

  • Content Module/Topic Descriptions
  • Quiz/Survey/Self-Assessment - Description, Header. Footer
  • Grades - Description
  • Content Course Overview descriptions
  • Discussion Forum/Topic descriptions

Note: Similar to current functionality, image files added to these areas are saved in the root of the Manage Files area of the organization unit the user is currently in.

2) Brightspace Editor – Email notifications for users tagged in discussion posts and threads

This feature updates the Brightspace Editor – Additional functionality | Updated feature released in June 2021 / 20.21.6 and now adds the ability for users tagged in discussion posts and threads to receive email notifications.

3) Brightspace Pulse – Operating system support

The latest version of Brightspace Pulse is supported on devices with iOS® 12+ or AndroidTM 6.0+ (2015 release). Older versions of Brightspace Pulse will continue to work on devices with iOS 11 or Android 5.0, but will not receive any app updates. For an optimal experience, D2L recommends installing the latest version of Brightspace Pulse on devices with iOS 12+ or Android 6.0+.

4) Content - Add Print Button to PDF file types

This feature adds the option to print PDF file types to Classic Content.

The Print button is visible when viewing a PDF topic or the Course Overview as a PDF. This button will also only appear for users with Compile and Print Content permission.

No option to print PDFs was previously available.

Image is highlighting the absence of print functionality in the PDF view before the update
Image is highlighting the absence of print functionality in the PDF view before the update
Image is highlighting the location of the Print button in PDF view in the Content area
Image is highlighting the location of the Print button in the PDF view (in the Content area)

If you are interested in getting more information about these and all the October Continuous Delivery updates, refer to the Brightspace Platform October 2021/20.21.10 Release Notes.

Additionally, refer to the Brightspace Release Notes for Continuous Delivery Releases, for details about current, past, and to preview upcoming continuous delivery updates.

Want more information?

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
View all the Brightspace training recaps
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Image credit: image by geralt from Pixabay

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Tip #274: ‘Observed in Person’ Assignments

The 'Observed in Person' assignment submission type is for situations where a learner needs to present something or demonstrate something and an instructor needs to confirm that it was completed. This submission type allows instructors to create assignments for a wide variety of activities and provide evaluation and feedback for these assignments in Brightspace.

assignment submission types

The ‘Observed in Person’ submission type is meant for scoring and evaluation of a learning activity such as demonstration, presentation, lab test, etc.

There are four submission types to choose from when creating an Assignment in Brightspace. The submission types are:

  • File submission: learners upload and submit a file to the assignment.
  • Text submission: learners post text, image, or a link to their work in a text box within the assignment.
  • On paper submission: learners submit a physical copy of their assignment directly to their instructor. No file upload is required to complete the assignment.
  • Observed in person: allows instructors to observe learners as they perform tasks, such as in-class presentations, and evaluate the observation. No file upload is required to complete the assignment.

There are three options to mark an ‘Observed in Person’ assignment as completed:

  • Automatically on due date – Brightspace marks the assignment as completed on a pre-set date.
  • Automatically on evaluation – Brightspace automatically marks the assignment as complete when the instructor evaluates the assignment using any of the assessment methods in Brightspace.
  • Manually by Learner – The student will mark the assignment as complete.

The assignment can be assessed using text/audio/video feedback, Brightspace interactive rubric, or by assigning a grade.

Want more information?

What is an ‘Observed in Person’ assignment?
Create assignments and assess submissions
Brightspace Tip #255: Simplify Assignment Collection
Brightspace Tip #204: Interactive Rubrics
Brightspace Tip #273: Video Notes
Brightspace Tip #233: Video Notes - Closed Captions

View all the Brightspace training recaps
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Continuous Delivery release notes
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Tip #273: Video Notes

Video Note new recording window
Video Note Recording Window

Video Notes is a built-in media recording tool in Brightspace that allows instructors and learners to record short videos (up to 30-minute video recording) with a webcam or up to 1GB file upload. This makes it easy to personalize the learning experience with short, video-based feedback, comments, or instructions. Video Notes can be added where video attachments are supported and when the Brightspace Editor’s Insert Stuff option is available.

Instructors can use Video Notes to:

  • Create a new Topic in Content area
  • Add a Description to a Module or a Topic in the Content area
  • Create an Announcement
  • Provide instructions when creating a Submission Folder for Assignments
  • Provide a feedback on students’ Assignments
  • Give a description of a new Topic in Discussions or make a post on a Discussion topic
  • Give students feedback in the Grade Book
  • Post a message in the Activity Feed
  • Anywhere Brightspace editor is available

Learners can use Video Notes in these areas of Brightspace:

  • When adding comments to uploaded assignments in a Submission folder
  • When posting a new thread or replying on someone’s thread in Discussion topic
  • Anywhere Brightspace editor is available

Follow these steps to do it.

To create and insert a video note in the Brightspace Editor:

  1. In the Brightspace Editor, click the Insert Stuff icon.
  2. Click Video Note.
  3. Select Record Webcam Video, or Upload File.

    If Record Webcam Video is selected, follow these steps:

    1. Click New Recording.
    2. Record up to 3 minutes of video and click Stop Recording.
    3. To view the video note, click the play icon.
    4. If you are satisfied with the video, click Next.
    5. Enter a title and description for the video note, and click Next.
    6. Click Insert.

    If Upload File is selected, follow these steps:

    1. Click Choose File and select the file you want to upload from your computer.
    2. File format must be MP4, FLV, F4V, or MOV, and file size cannot be larger than 1GB.
    3. Click Next, and enter a title and description.
    4. Click Next, and then Insert.

insert stuff button

example of insert stuff menu with video note selected
Add Video Note from Insert Stuff menu

Want more information?

Create Video Notes
Create and insert a Video Note in Brightspace Editor
Reuse Video Notes
Spotlight: 3 Video Note Workflows (New York University)
Understanding the Brightspace Editor
Add closed captions to a Video Note
Edit Video Notes closed captions

View all the Brightspace training recaps
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Continuous Delivery release notes
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Published on Leave a comment on ICYMI: Customize Your Course Homepage in Brightspace

Customize Your Course Homepage in Brightspace [44:56]

Thanks to those of you who attended this week's Customize Your Course Homepage workshop. The workshop, the eighth in our #LEX Advanced series, helps you to build on the skills you learned in the #LearnEverywhereXULA course. The focus of this workshop was to provide training on how to customize your course homepages to enhance the course experience for your learners.

In case you missed this week’s training session or if you attended the training session and want to recap what was covered, a copy of the workshop recording and resources referenced in the workshop are available. You can find the workshop recording and other resources in support of the workshop on the CAT+FD wiki.

Additionally, if you did not get the opportunity to earn a digital badge for participating in the workshop, it's not too late to earn that badge. We have a corresponding “Homepages & Widgets” module in the #LearnEverywhereXULA (#LEX) course that you can complete to earn a digital badge for this topic. The badge will count towards your #LEX Advanced certification.